A Plant from Dinosaur – Era Found Still Alive in North America

The land of North America holds a large number of species of green algae. It was discovered for the very first time that records of fossils have been found dating back to the time of dinosaurs. Richard Mc Court, PhD and his colleagues found Lychnothamnus barbatus. These large green algae were thought to have died in the Western Hemisphere long back.

This discovery motivated scientists to hunt for more new species which might seem to get extinct. Mc Court, associate curator of Botany at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University and professor in the University's College of Arts and Sciences said that they don’t know as much about what’s out there as they could. Between the years 2012 and 2016, samples of algae were collected from 14 lakes across Wisconsin and two in Minnesota.

Collectors were already familiar that they hadn’t seen this specie in North America before. The only record of this specie on the western side of the Atlantic Ocean was Argentinian Cretaceous-era fossils (the same time from which Tyrannosaurus rex fossils were found.)

By: Bhavna Sharma

Content: www.sciencedaily.com